


And we're still arguing like children

by moonmoonandthemorrigan



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Brotherly Love?, Gen, We're getting arrested y'all, affirmations of friendship, but we still can't shut up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-25
Updated: 2020-08-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:13:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26095429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonmoonandthemorrigan/pseuds/moonmoonandthemorrigan
Summary: Prompt: The M9 comes off of RumblecuspThey ended a warThey killed a GodThey saved an islandJester's got a new relationship with her God.......and Essek won't respond to her messages
Comments: 6
Kudos: 57





	And we're still arguing like children

**Author's Note:**

> This is @sleeplittlechild's fault.

Caleb's hands shake as he transports them to Rosohna. 

The guards are waiting for them and through some gift (or the Traveller) they are able to sneak through without being caught. 

The M9 sneak to the road outside Essek's house and they hide in the bushes and the holes that they dug for Veth (that seems like such a long time ago now). 

There's a rattling sound as the doors are flung wide open and a tall drow man in Kryn armor has Essek by the upper arm. 

Essek looks shaken, he's sporting a black eye and his hands... 

Oh my god, his hands.

They are twisted and crumpled as if someone had broken them beneath a boot--and there are bloodstains on the taller drow's. 

They are clamped in a thin iron chain with runes carved into them and the M9 knows that they're on their own. 

The drow man is ranting to himself as he shakes Essek. 

"You fucking moron. Why am I not surprised." He snarls, "You always did think that you were cleverer than everyone around you. You were entitled to know more. Are you happy? Are you happy now, Essek? Finally, someone can see you for who you fucking are, the fucking sneak thief that puts his own desire over the rest of the den's."

"Verin..." 

"It's Taskhand Thelyss to you, Asshole. Why did you do it, huh? Did mother's blessing give you that superiority that made you think that you could get away with anything, huh? Wait until mother dearest hears what happened to her Prodigy~ You think this would make her proud? First, it was fraternizing with those mercenaries--and then you steal those fucking beacons? I bet they helped you do it and your conniving brain thought their friendship was an asset." 

Essek tilts sideways and it seems that his floating spell is still up (and isn't that a kicker, he didn't feel safe enough at home in order to stop floating) and his one bare foot connects with his brother's (?) chin with a surprising amount of force that he shuts up. 

"Shut your fucking mouth about things that you don't understand. It's never been about making the umavi proud. Not since I'd past my first quarter century. And don't you dare talk about the Nein like that."Verin dropped Essek who landed in a heap with a mumbled. "Not them. Don't talk about them like that."

"What are they to you even?" Verin rubbed his cheek as his fingers splay into what looked like a dispel magic before he seized his arm again,"Strange that someone like you can get attached to his pawns." 

"They aren't pawns." 

"Co-conspirators, then." 

"Were you always this dense or did I imagine it?" 

"Friends?" 

Essek is silent. His brother hauls him up onto his shoulder. "This is undignified." 

"Good. It should be for an asshole who thought betraying his country was a good idea." There's a little shift as he comforts them and Essek yelps a little and there's a wolfish smile on Verin's face. "Luxon, Essek the icy has friends who knew. Bet they're nasty and cutthroat as you are." 

"I think you'll find," the coolness of the shadowhand's tone curled around each of Essek's elongated syllables, it's softened a bit by the ridiculous position he's in, "That they are quite the opposite." 

(Inside one of the holes, Caleb, Beauregard, and Veth are having a very long drawn out argument only using rude hand gestures about what to do as Beau seizes the wizard's collar to keep him from fucking moving. In another, Fjord and Yasha are attempting to hold a hand over Jester's mouth and keep her from vaulting over the lip of the hole. She throws an elbow into Fjord's forehead and casts...)

"Doesn't matter, if they know what's good for them--they'll drop you before they figure out how evil you really are." 

There's a shout of, "EAT SHIT."

And a Giant Spectral Lollipop whizzes over Essek's head and he can feel it rustle against the fabric of his robes as there is a loud thunk as it connects and he tumbles out of his brother's arms. 

Essek is in the mud again. His hands are in pain, they can't move, and he's magic-less. But still he smiles crookedly into the mud as he thinks, "They rarely do."


End file.
